Keith, Elizabeth P., compiler and editorSIERRA MADRE VISTAS: A Pictorial History of Sierra Madre(Sierra Madre, California): Sierra Madre Historical Society, 1976. First edition, first printing. Dated and SIGNED by the author and additionally SIGNED by seven sponsors. Hardcover. Near fine with only mild shelfwear, in brown cloth with spine titles and front cover titles and illustration gilt-embossed; no dust jacket. Quarto. 166 pages; fully illustrated with photos, maps and facsimiles. Zeroxed index sheets & ephemera laid in. Pictorial history of Sierra Madre, California with a wealth of vintage photos: includes the founding and history; early government; business development; schools; religious organizations; service and cultural organizations; mountains and recreation, etc.
Price:
150.00 USD

Kip, LeonardCALIFORNIA SKETCHES; with Recollections of the Gold MinesLos Angeles, N.A. Kovach, 1946. First edition thus, one of 750 copies. With errata slip. In California Centennial Series. Illustrated with plates printed on coated stock inserts. Hardcover. A whisper of age-toning to textblock, else fine, in dark red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, with gilt miner device to front cover; in an illustrated dust jacket that shows some rubbing, mild soiling, a few dots of stain, internal nick to rear panel. "An extremely rare item of Californiana...a concise, yet interesting, narrative of the observations and experiences of a well-educated young man in the gold rush of '49."--Lyle H. Wright, from his introduction. Kip's memoir was first published in 1850.
Price:
35.00 USD

Lesley, Lewis Burt, editorUNCLE SAM'S CAMELS: The Journal of May Humphreys Stacey, Supplemented by the Report of Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1857-1858)Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929. B000860RFE First edition, first printing. Bibliography, index, and fold-out map. Introductory and concluding chapters by editor Lesley. Hardcover. Offsetting to all endsheets, and to pages 88-89, else fine; in café-au-lait cloth with gilt-stamped titles to spine, top edge gilt; in a very good plus dust jacket, showing age-darkening (especially to spine panel), minor soiling, very light edgewear. Story of the legendary first and last "Camel Brigade" which made its way from San Antonio, Texas, to Bakersfield, California in the late 1850's. Beale was the camel corps' commander, Stacey, a boy of nineteen who went along on the bizarre adventure.
Price:
125.00 USD

Los Angeles Directory Co.THURSTON'S RESIDENCE AND BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF PASADENA, ALTADENA AND LAMANDA PARKLos Angeles, Cal.: Los Angeles Directory Co., 1925. First edition. Hardcover. Very good plus to near fine: mild shelfwear to the original tan cloth covers and maroon cloth shelfback; publisher's advertisement lettering in gold, black, and red to the covers and advertising in black to all the shelf edges. Thick quarto. 925 pages. Subtitle: "Containing An Alphabetical List of Business Firms and Private Citizens; A Directory of the City and County Officials, Societies, Schools, Churches, Clubs, Etc.; A Street and Avenue Guide and Directory of Householders..." Scarce!
Price:
500.00 USD

Manly, William LewisDEATH VALLEY IN '49: An Important Chapter of California Pioneer HistoryNew York, Santa Barbara: Wallace Hebberd, (1929). B00085XYX2 First edition thus. With foreword by John Steven McGroarty. Illustrated by Alson Clark. Hardcover. Near fine: a bright, clean, sharp example, with owner's 1930-dated name to half-title, very mild wear, tiny piece of tape to rear pastedown; in green cloth with gilt lettering and rules, map-decorated endsheets; no dust jacket. "The autobiography of a pioneer, detailing his life from a humble home in the Green Mountains to the gold mines of California and particularly reciting the sufferings of the band of men, women, and children who gave Death Valley its name."
Price:
75.00 USD

Muir, JohnTHE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIANew York: The Century Co., 1911. First edition thus: new and enlarged edition. Illustrated from Preliminary Sketches and Photographs Furnished by the Author. Hardcover. Owner's discreet signature to front pastedown, soiling to covers, mild wear: thus very good plus; in tan pictorial cloth with gilt titling and gilt-and-black front cover illustration of a California mountain wreathed in pine-coned branches; gilt top-edge. The culmination of the ten years Muir spent in the Sierra Nevadas. Muir "invents, by sheer force of his love, an entirely new vocabulary and grammar of the wild . . . a language of ecstasy and exuberance."--Bill McKibben.
Price:
75.00 USD

Neasham, V. AubreyWILD LEGACY: California Hunting and Fishing TalesBerkeley, California: Howell-North Books, (1973). 0831070985 First edition. Hardcover. Fine in yellow linen with titles in black to the front cover and spine; in a fine pictorial dust jacket. Methods of hunting and fishing and changes in wildlife in California over a 150-year period are highlighted in this collection of the best stories gathered from the days of New Spain up through the early 1970s. Illustrated with 33 pages of photos.
Price:
25.00 USD

O'Brien, RobertCALIFORNIA CALLED THEM: A Saga of Golden Days and Roaring CampsNew York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, (1951). First edition. Hardcover. Older bookplate pasted to the verso of the half-title page, overall a very good plus copy in bright, price-clipped dust jacket with some shelfwear and a closed edge tear. Octavo. SIGNED by the author on the half-title page. Illustrated by Antonio Sotomayor. 250 pages, index, and endpaper maps.
Price:
25.00 USD

O'Crousley, Pedro Alonso; Galvin, Sean, translator and editorA DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 1774[San Francisco]: John Howell--Books, 1972. First edition thus. Bound in peacock-blue cloth gilt-stamped with calligraphic titles to front cover and spine; in illustrated dust jacket. Quarto. Hardcover. Fine, with front of jacket showing a 4''x12'' area of nearly invisible offsetting. Sepia and full-color illustrations reproduced from the original manuscript, folded map of 1768 Mexico housed in a rear pastedown pocket, color frontisportrait of author. Fascinating view of 18th century Mexico and Baja recorded by the Cadiz-born merchant of Irish descent, who compiled his "Idea compendiosa" during business trips to "Nueva Espana." With enchanting color drawings of Mexican racial mixtures, wildlife, etc.
Price:
75.00 USD

Offord, Lenore GlenMURDER ON RUSSIAN HILLPhiladelphia: Macrae-Smith-Company, 1938. First edition, first printing. Black cloth with titles in black across red bands. Hardcover. Mild abrasions to the pastedown endpapers, stains to the covers, slight fading to the spine, minor wear and fraying to the spine ends, else about very good; lacking the dust jacket. Critically well-received first mystery novel by the author who's fiction is noted for its humor and characterization. From 1950 to 1982 Offord was the mystery critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Set in San Francisco. Scarce!
Price:
125.00 USD

Perry, E. Caswell and Parcher, Carroll W.GLENDALE AREA HISTORYGlendale, California: Eric Schneirsohn/Xanadu Galleries, 1981. B0006XUJE8 / 978B0006XUJE4 Second edition. Limited edition No. 20. Inscribed to a patron and SIGNED by the author, Carroll W. Parcher--son of the first mayor of Glendale. Hardcover. About near fine: mild spine slant, spotting to page edges, bumping to one upper corner tip; in black, pebbled cloth, with gilt titles and decoration; no dust jacket. Quarto. This history is packed with color and b&w photographs and divided into sections on: the Spanish period and early history; Glendale government; community organizations, company and institutional histories. 222 pages, including index.
Price:
75.00 USD